


No 'I' In Team

by TheLibranIniquity



Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 09:20:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLibranIniquity/pseuds/TheLibranIniquity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The latest edict from on high: team bonding, with the possibility of camera crews.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No 'I' In Team

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [celeste9](http://celeste9.livejournal.com/) in the 2013 Denial Secret Santa, using the prompt "never doing that again". With many many thanks to [Lady Drace](http://ladydrace.tumblr.com/) for cheering and betaing.

If you were to ask Jess Parker how her Monday morning was going, she'd happily subvert every cliché and tell you that it was actually going rather well. Scheduled diagnostics on the ARC's internal network were (so far) showing no malfunctions, the arrival of the newly appointed (and pretentiously named, in Jess' opinion) Temporal Affairs Minister to tour the ARC and attempt to match wits with Lester had been pushed back to the afternoon, by which point the lower atrium would _definitely_ have been hosed down following the mammoth's latest... output, and there had been a Cadbury's selection box waiting for Jess at her terminal. (She had yet to find out who had been feeling guilty enough to leave it, and what, exactly, they had done.)

There was a lot going on, even for a Monday, but Jess was having a good time.

So of course it was doomed to end badly.

Emily was the first to arrive, her boots tapping steadily as she walked over to stand by the edge of Jess' terminal. She glanced at the selection box; Jess grinned, and Emily reached inside for a sweet.

A couple of minutes later Becker and Matt appeared... and didn't go anywhere, instantly making Jess suspect that something was up. She pulled up her emails and internal memos from the last three days to see if she'd missed anything – and slipped the lid back on the selection box when someone reached over her shoulder for it.

“But -” It was Becker.

Jess craned her neck to raise her eyebrows. “No.”

“Not even -” he began.

“No,” Jess repeated. Honestly, it was like dealing with children sometimes. Chocolate was chocolate and, more importantly, it was hers.

Becker humphed, but pulled away. Matt looked indifferent, or maybe amused, but said nothing.

Jess ignored both in favour of the utter lack of information about any Monday morning meetings in any of her messages – and the ones that she had access to anyway. Nothing at all.

Now, if Jess were the type to be suspicious...

“Good morning everyone!” Lester announced, with the feigned enthusiasm and high pitched tone that meant a Whitehall minion was somewhere close behind him. Jess craned her neck but there were no minions to be seen, just Connor and Abby slipping in at the far end of the control room.

“I come bearing unbelievably exciting news.” Lester's expression suggested otherwise, and Jess tried not to giggle. Not appropriate; it was looking less and less like a good morning now.

Lester paused, just long enough for everyone to start looking at each other. After a few seconds, during which nothing happened, he sighed. “Our lords and masters have, in their... infinite wisdom, decided that what this country needs is a public reassurance that the front lines of dinosaur handling and fighting are, well, up to scratch.”

“You mean like telly interviews?” Connor interrupted eagerly.

“I'm not doing that again,” Abby said quickly, shooting Connor a warning look.

“Me either,” Becker said, a bit more petulantly. Beside him Matt shook his head in agreement.

Lester cleared his throat. “In a word, no.”

“Then what?” Connor asked.

Lester sighed again. “Team bonding.”

Emily, surprisingly, was the first to speak. “...What?”

“Team bonding,” Lester repeated. “A fully funded two day excursion to an 'outdoor pursuits and recreation centre' -” the quotation marks were practically visible above his head, “- with discreet observation by carefully selected members of the press.”

Becker snorted. “That's ridiculous.”

“Yes,” Lester said. “Unfortunately the new Minister disagreed with my opinion. It's happening; we will all be required to take part. No sick notes, no changing shifts, no mysteriously dead or dying relatives, best friends or even former acquaintances.” Everyone got glared at this time.

Jess realised that 'we' meant Lester would be taking part as well. She imagined him doing an assault course in charcoal pinstripe, and giggled.

“You'll be coming as well, Miss Parker.”

Jess sobered up instantly. “What?”

“The entire team will take part,” Lester told her. “That includes me, and it most certainly includes our field co-ordinator.”

Jess stared at Lester.

Lester stared back.

Jess narrowed her eyes.

“So it's settled,” Lester said as brightly as he'd begun. “I'll inform the new Minister of just how well her brilliant idea has been received.”

And just like that, Jess hated Mondays.

o o o o o

Jess put her hands on her hips and steadily maintained eye contact. “I'm not wearing a uniform.”

Becker, sporting the most petulant expression Jess had ever seen on him, waved a hand at the (extra extra probably extra small) cargo trousers and black t-shirt beside him. “It's going to be an intense experience,” he told her seriously. “You can't exactly go like...”

“Like what?”

Becker hesitated.

“Go on,” Jess encouraged, trying not to smile. “I can't go like what? Like a girl?” She gestured down at her outfit, one of her favourite combinations of blue, purple, green and yellow.

Becker averted his eyes. Jess clenched her teeth and told herself not to smile.

“I can do practical.”

He raised his eyebrows.

Okay, maybe he had a point. “I own trousers.”

Becker chuckled. “Of course you do.” He left the uniform next to Jess' computer and sauntered – sauntered! – off.

“He has a point,” Emily said, appearing as if from nowhere. She swiped another sweet from the selection box and glanced at Jess, paused for a moment and then nodded. “We'll go shopping.”

Jess beamed. That was the first sensible idea she'd heard all week.

o o o o o

The day before the team bonding exercise Jess arrived at the ARC to find the selection box had disappeared from her terminal, and in its place was a paper bag. She picked it up, frowning, then opened the top.

There was an epi-pen inside, and the label on the side of the bag listed the insects she was allergic to.

As gestures went it was up there with the best, but Jess still wasn't looking forward to the weekend.

o o o o o

Friday morning came and went without an anomaly alert, much to the disguised disappointment of the team. By Friday lunch time Becker's military team had been left on standby at the ARC and everyone was gathered in the car park at the outdoor pursuits centre. Nobody looked happy to be there. Jess fidgeted. Her jeans itched and there was something intrinsically wrong with wearing trainers. It was like her entire perspective had been shifted.

Beside her Emily looked completely at ease, but no less unhappy about the situation.

“Guess Lester wasn't kidding about the press being discreet,” Connor commented.

Jess followed his gaze to the other side of a fence, where a woman was talking into a video camera. “Shame he wasn't kidding about the whole thing,” she muttered.

“Indeed,” Lester said from behind her. He stepped into the group, looking as pressed and immaculate as ever despite wearing exactly the same combat gear as Becker, give or take a few sharp creases. “The Minister regrets she couldn't join us; there was apparently an emergency Cabinet meeting she was forced to attend.”

Someone snorted.

“I also believe that our first activity awaits us,” Lester continued, blithely ignoring the noise. “The sooner we get started, everyone.”

This was every school trip Jess had never wanted to go on.

At least this time she wasn't alone.

o o o o o

The first activity was building a bivouac. Their guide – a man around Lester's age who seemed unable to string a sentence together without hiccuping – told them they had an hour to assemble a waterproof structure before jogging away.

Emily elbowed Becker. “You intimidated him.”

He stared at her.

“You can be very, you know,” Jess plastered on her most innocent expression.

Becker sighed and held his hands up. “I'm not even going to try.”

“Best way,” Connor told him. “It's how you'll keep your reputation.”

“What reputation?” Becker just looked puzzled now.

Jess snorted, while Connor grinned. Meanwhile Abby had grabbed the 'building supplies' and tossed them into the middle of the circle the team had formed, announcing: “There's a dip in ground level behind Matt – we should start there, use as much of the natural terrain as possible.” She motioned for Connor to start helping her, and Jess watched as the pair fell into an efficient and silent rhythm.

She, Matt, Emily, Becker and Lester all looked at each other for a few seconds. Then, as if by silent consensus, they stayed out of the way while a shelter was quickly assembled. It was pretty impressive to watch.

“Better supplies than before,” Connor commented at one point. Jess's smile disappeared, realising just how Connor and Abby had learned to work so well together. She shifted on her feet again, and felt someone touch her elbow.

She prodded Becker back. “Don't go getting all maudlin on me now,” she murmured, gratified when he offered a smile in return. Well, it was a small smile. More of a twitch, really. 

But it totally counted.

“Finished,” Abby announced, pulling everyone back into the present. She stood next to the lopsided, but seemingly well built, tent and smiled wanly. It was clear she'd been thinking about her and Connor's year in the past as well. “In you come, one at a time.”

It was a tight fit with seven inside the shelter. Lester looked especially uncomfortable pressed up against Becker. He grimaced when Jess squeezed up against him to give Emily a bit more breathing space, but eventually they all formed a tight, uneven circle, hunched over underneath bright yellow tarpaulin.

Lester cleared his throat. “Captain Tight Pants.”

Connor coughed and wheezed; Abby hit his back and Jess lost it, giggling madly while Matt raised his eyebrows and Emily just looked puzzled. Becker, meanwhile, was turning a rather bright shade of pink.

“Becker's reputation,” Lester explained to Emily – though Becker's reaction was clearly not lost on him. “It's a reference to a military character from a television show. Presumably something our hiccuping survival guide was only all too aware of.”

Connor's expression had turned to one of amazement. “You know _Firefly_?”

Lester sighed, pulling a face normally reserved for government ministers and, more recently, tabloid columnists. “I have teenagers.”

“Brilliant,” Connor grinned.

Emily still didn't look convinced, so Jess nudged her. “We'll add it to the List,” she told her, referring to their as-often-as-possible weekends devoted to getting Emily up to speed with the 21st century (they hadn't got around to telly yet, which was clearly a glaring error on Jess' part).

Talk didn't turn inconsequential among the seven after that. One thing Jess had learned quite early on was that very little the team ever did or said could be called inconsequential, which only made the moments like this all the more meaningful. Even if they did come with starchy jeans and squished inside an improvised tent like sardines.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Becker said softly, looking at Jess.

“Two to not share them,” Lester said quickly, clearly having passed his quota of personal moments for the month.

Jess wrenched her hand from behind Emily to point to Lester. “Deal.”

But she smiled as she said it, and with it came the realisation that actually, this weekend wouldn't be so bad after all. 

Not with a team – and friends – like these.


End file.
